Biden names his court-packing panel

Views from around the world. These opinions are not necessarily shared by Stuff newspapers.

During the presidential campaign, Joe Biden refused to say whether he’d be part of a court-packing scheme intended to ensure the Supreme Court looked the other way on constitutionally dubious progressive initiatives. Eventually, he said he’d appoint a commission to study the issue. On Friday, he signed an executive order creating such a panel.

Ironically, it comes just days after one of the Supreme Court’s liberal members warned against expanding the number of justices to achieve policy goals. Justice Stephen Breyer also argued that differences among the justices are based on differing judicial philosophies and constitutional interpretations.

Although there are a few conservative or libertarian scholars on the commission, left-leaning philosophies dominate. While court-packing will be its primary focus, the board will examine other issues, such as term limits for federal and Supreme Court justices. The New York Times reports that the ‘‘the panel . . . will provide Mr Biden, members of Congress and the public [with] an evaluation of the risks and benefits of making changes to the court.”

Whether the commission will actually lay the groundwork for overhauling the judicial system remains to be seen. By all means let’s have a debate on the wisdom of ramming through a radical judicial reform grounded in hyperpartisan politics that polls show a healthy majority of Americans oppose. After all, how much political risk can the Biden administration tolerate heading into 2022 with an evenly split Senate and a tiny House majority?